


you gonna see it someday, my attention's on you

by lisa6



Series: Pynch, from the outside. [3]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Boys In Love, College Student Adam Parrish, M/M, POV Outsider, People being envious of Adam Parrish's brain, People being in Love with Adam Parrish Because he's a Wonderful Human Being, People trying to be as good as Adam Parrish at college, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish in Love, return of aloof power couple pynch (kinda)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 17:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20782112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisa6/pseuds/lisa6
Summary: Erin is in love with fellow Harvard student Adam Parrish. She finally tries to make a move after finals, only to end up getting interrupted by a friend of Adam's.





	you gonna see it someday, my attention's on you

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in like, 60 minutes. On my phone. There might be spelling/grammar/continuity errors. If you find any (particularly any of the first two categories, since I'm German and English therefore isn't my mother tongue), please let me know :) 
> 
> Also, you know, thanks for reading. ♥️

Erin dropped her forehead into the palms of her hands, the few strands of hair that had loosened from the messy bun she’d carelessly pulled it up into this morning tickling the sides of her face. Around her, the library buzzed with students desperate to soak up as much knowledge as possible before their finals tomorrow.

‘I don’t think I can do it,’ Erin sighed. ‘It’s too much. Why’d I go to Harvard? It could’ve been literally anything else and I—’

‘Don’t be an idiot,’ Gemma said, reaching out to squeeze Erin’s forearm. ‘You’re smart and brilliant and Harvard’s so lucky to have you. It’s just a test. You’ve written hundreds of those before.’

‘It’s finals!’

‘Erin,’ Gemma soothed. ‘We’ll go get drinks tomorrow night, okay? We’ll go to Craig’s and get hammered on gin and Ts and we’ll find some cute guys to take home with us and— hey, maybe that guy you find so hot will be there!’

Erin’s eyes widened. ‘Shh! Are you crazy? He’s right there,’ she hissed, red-cheeked and feeling hot all over. She glanced to the side, where Adam sat, handsome as always. He’d pulled on an expensive-looking black hoodie that was just the tiniest bit too big around his shoulders, and completed the look with a pair of light blue jeans and white sneakers. Like most students at the moment, he had dark circles under his deep blue eyes, but his sun-bronzed skin was still clear and radiant. Apparently he was immune to stress eating, or smart enough to stick to healthy food at least. If it was the latter, Erin wouldn’t be surprised; Adam was one of the brightest students in their year, and so ambitious that he’d quickly become a favorite among the professors.

‘Be a little more obvious, please,’ Gemma said around a sly grin.

Erin cringed and forced her attention back to her friend. ‘I bet _he_’s not worried.’

‘Uh, you’re not seriously benchmarking yourself against Adam Parrish, are you? I’m pretty sure he’s at least half machine.’

_One last time_, Erin exhorted herself, and took advantage of her loose curls to hide the fact she was looking asquint at Adam again. He’d produced a phone from somewhere and currently seemed to be suppressing a smile as his thumbs tapped away at the screen.

‘Does he have a girlfriend?’ Erin asked, and only belatedly realized she’d admitted to having stared again, but Gemma merely shot her a fondly exasperated look.

‘You can ask him tomorrow night, after we’ve all passed our finals with flying colors.’

Erin sighed heavily; Adam had gone back to studying, focused on the weighty tome in front of him and his phone nowhere to be seen.

She drew herself up; she didn’t know Adam Parrish yet, but that wouldn’t change anytime soon if she kept fantasizing about him from afar instead of finally making the first move. She peeked at Adam one more time — he was tilting his head to the side as he was swiftly scribbling down notes on a piece of paper, bottom lip caught between his teeth — and promised herself to end the term with a way overdue conversation with the prettiest boy she’d ever seen.

+++

‘I told you!’ Gemma exclaimed, beaming. Strobe lights illuminated her dark hair and round chocolate eyes as she moved to the beat of whatever ear-shatteringly loud song was blasting through the club’s speakers right now. Her bright orange nails seemed to glow in the dark. ’We’ll be the greatest lawyers New York has ever seen!’ 

Erin let out an exuberant laugh, throwing her head back and her arms around Gemma's shoulders. Gemma giggled in her ear; her drink splashed Erin’s upper arm and soaked a few strands of her hair, but neither of them was sober enough to care. Theo, Gemma’s boyfriend, returned from his quest to get drinks for the three of them.

‘Rock’n’Roll,’ he said as Gemma and Erin let go of each other, and handed them their drinks. ‘G and Ts for the ladies.’

‘Thanks, babe,’ Gemma said, kissing him.

He winked at her, then glanced at Erin. ‘I saw your dreamboat.’

Erin’s shoulders slumped. ‘Stop making fun of me,’ she complained while Gemma laughed at her expense. ‘Where? At the bar?’

Theo, now smirking a little, nodded at something behind her. Erin turned around, and there he was, Adam Parrish, standing with another guy she’d never seen before in the throng occupying the dance floor. The guy he was with was tall, marginally taller than Adam, and handsome, classically sculpted with a straight Roman nose and a sharp jawline. He looked like the kind of asshole you couldn’t help but feel attracted to. He wore all black clothes, had a buzzcut, long lashes and fantastic teeth that glinted in the little light when he laughed at something Adam said in his ear.

‘Who’s that?’ Erin asked her friends.

Theo just kept smirking as Gemma shrugged and said, ‘Never seen him before.’

Erin watched as Adam cocked his head a little, turning his face away from her and to the guy he was with. One of his hands held on to the guy’s elbow, thumb disappearing underneath the sleeve of his T-shirt.

A group of girls passing by obstructed her view of them. When they were gone again, Adam was on his own, smiling down at his phone. Its display was bright enough to illuminate his face, the light washing out the dark circles under his eyes and the faint freckles across his nose, and God, he was pretty.

‘I’m going to talk to him,’ Erin said. ‘Now or never, right?’

‘Luck,’ Gemma returned. Erin felt nervousness bubbling up inside of her, gluing her feet to the floor and sending her heartbeat up to her throat, but then Theo shot her finger guns and suddenly it was a lot easier to leave. Making her way through the crowd took longer than she’d anticipated but she was lucky; when she finally came up to Adam he was still on his own, thumbs tapping away on his cracked screen.

He was still smiling.

Jesus. Was she about to disturb him? Maybe he was texting his mom and letting her know finals went well. Maybe he was looking at pictures of a happy golden retriever waiting for his return back home. Maybe his dad had congratulated him on acing yet another exam. Maybe he was making plans with friends for the break.

Erin stopped short. Just as she was about to turn around again, someone bumped into her, making her stumble right into Adam and sending her gin and tonic flying. It ended up splashing both the front of her shirt and the sleeve of his.

‘Oh, god,’ she said, half into his chest and half into the now-empty glass she was still holding on to, ‘I’m so sorry.’

Adam’s fingers curled around her shoulders to steady her. She felt the rigid material of his phone digging into her bone.

‘You alright?’ he asked, leaning away a little and tilting his head to look at her face. Erin stared back at him — up close he was even more beautiful, deep blue eyes framed by light lashes, cheekbones rosy — and stared, and stared, and stared. Adam gave a soft laugh and, on the exhale, added, ‘Um?’

‘Oh, yeah! Sorry. I’m sorry—’ she gestured to his shirt ‘—about the mess.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Adam let go of her shoulders. ‘Did you hurt yourself?’

‘No, I’m okay. Thanks.’ She held out her hand. ‘I’m Erin.’

‘Adam,’ he said, and shook her hand. He was grinning a little, as if she was amusing him. It looked nice, although Erin couldn’t pinpoint if it really _was_ nice. It was hard to read him, she found.

‘Did you— uh, did you do well in your finals?’

Adam gave a one-shouldered shrug, still smiling, and slipped his phone back into his jeans pocket. ‘Think so. You?’

Erin nodded, was just about to open her mouth to elaborate, when Adam’s friend returned with two bottles — one beer, one water. The latter he handed to Adam, who accepted it with a smile that was quick and easy, but much more genuine and fond than the one he’d directed at Erin.

Adam’s friend smiled, too — albeit gleeful — when he saw the wet patch on Adam’s shirt. He reached out to pull the soaked fabric away from Adam’s skin, then let go again. It happened with such naturalness that Erin immediately felt out of place.

‘Shut up,’ Adam snorted.

‘Not saying anything,’ his friend returned, and threw an arm over Adam’s shoulders. In the same motion he’d run his hand over Adam’s hair, tousling it slightly, and Erin learned that Adam had a spectacular eye-roll.

‘This is Ronan,’ Adam informed her. ‘Ronan, Erin.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ she said, and Ronan gave her a sharp nod. Sometime during the past moments, his grin had transformed into a smirk. Erin asked, ‘Do you study here, too?’

‘I’m here for Parrish.’

‘That’s nice,’ Erin said, meaning it. She couldn’t remember the last time one of her friends from out of town came to visit her at college. ‘So you don’t get to see each other a lot?’

Ronan’s eyes narrowed. ‘We manage.’

Somehow that made Adam laugh. ‘Alright, fine. Erin, I’ll see you around, yeah?’

Erin’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, sure. Yeah, totally. Um. Bye?’

‘Bye,’ Adam said, smiling, and turned around in Ronan’s arm to face him while Erin turned to head back to Gemma and Theo.

Once there, she said, ‘I’m pretty sure I was met with a rebuff.’

‘Oh no!’ Gemma cried. ‘Seriously?’

Theo said, very flatly, ‘You guys have got to be kidding.’

Erin gave him a questioning look, and Theo gestured a turning motion with his index finger. When Erin looked back over her shoulder, she saw that Adam was still standing enveloped in Ronan’s arm and that his hand had moved to cup the nape of his neck, his blunt nails slowly scraping up the pale skin into short hair. He seemed to still be saying something into Ronan’s ear, defined jaw moving with every word. What little she could see of his cheeks was tinted a faint pink.

‘They seem close,’ Theo quipped, sarcastic as all hell.

‘Friends can hug,’ Gemma said, as always quick to remind her boyfriend. ‘Just because some idiots have a problem with guys showing affection—’

‘Babe,’ Theo said, ‘I’m seriously not the kind of guy shying away from any sort of affection. Stop lecturing me. Plus, that’s not a hug. That’s the kind of shit you do when you’re trying to pull someone. Bet you sixty dollars—’

Erin blocked them out while she watched as Adam lifted his free hand — the one that had until then been holding onto Ronan’s upper arm — and rested it against sharp cheekbones. He said something, which made a small smile curve Ronan’s pink, thin lips, before leaning in to kiss him.

Ronan’s other arm came up as well, draping over Adam’s shoulders and pulling him closer. Adam’s fingers at the back of Ronan’s head spread wider apart to hold him in place. Erin caught a glimpse of someone’s wet, pink tongue, glistening in the strobe lights, before desperate lips pressed closer again. A muscle in Ronan’s arm twitched. Adam tilted his head a little.

‘I accept apologies from now on,’ Theo said, ‘since clearly I’m the only one of you heteronormative people to entertain the idea that there might be something deeper than friendship between them. Sorry, Erin.’

‘Shut up, Theo. God.’

'Well,' Erin said. 'Maybe next semester.'

**Author's Note:**

> If you have a minute, please let me know what you think about this tiny little love letter to Adam Parrish. (Honestly, I could've gone way more overboard and I will in the next one.)


End file.
